During the last ten years the need for a new generation of star trackers emerged as the requirements for space platform attitude control became more stringent. Star trackers of the 1970's and 1980's were typically based upon image disector tubes or P-N junction photo-diodes and could provide accuracy near 10 arc-seconds, 1-sigma, with extensive calibration. Future NASA and DoD spacecraft, including Space Station 'Freedom' and various SDIO surveillance spacecraft, require almost a ten-fold improvement in accuracy coupled to greater sensitivity, functional versatility, and lower power and weight. The Advanced Star Tracker (ASTRA) developed by Hughes Danbury Optical Systems, Inc. combines the high sensitivity and resolution inherent in a modern charge coupled device detector with the versatile processing capability of a 16-bit microprocessor to achieve a level of performance surpassing existing trackers. In this paper, we explore star tracker error sources and the design and calibration techniques utilized in ASTRA to eliminate or minimize those errors. An error tree presents high and low special frequency centroiding error sources and their influence on the tracker's design. Requirements for thermal control of the detector and for optical calibration are discussed along with an overview of the data processing function. Finally, we present hardware test results that demonstrate a significant improvement in accuray and sensitivity relative to existing tube-type trackers.


    Zugriff

    Zugriff über TIB

    Verfügbarkeit in meiner Bibliothek prüfen


    Exportieren, teilen und zitieren



    Titel :

    Star trackers for spacecraft applications


    Weitere Titelangaben:

    Stern-Nachlaufsystem für Raumfahrtanwendungen


    Beteiligte:
    Cassidy, L.W. (Autor:in) / Abreu, R. (Autor:in)


    Erscheinungsdatum :

    1990


    Format / Umfang :

    17 Seiten, 12 Bilder, 4 Tabellen, 2 Quellen


    Medientyp :

    Aufsatz (Konferenz)


    Format :

    Print


    Sprache :

    Englisch






    Spacecraft Attitude Control using Star Field Trackers

    Birnbaum, M. M. / International Academy of Astronautics | British Library Conference Proceedings | 1996


    Spacecraft Attitude Control using Star Field Trackers

    Birnbaum, Morris M. | Online Contents | 1996


    Spacecraft Attitude Control using Star Field Trackers

    Birnbaum, M. M. / International Academy of Astronautics | British Library Conference Proceedings